The Meaning of Life

This won't take long, because this is not a difficult question. I don't know why people worry so much.

As I see it, the question is entirely misunderstood. Despite what a dictionary might tell you, 'What is the meaning of life?' revolves around a simple fact: meaning is a verb, not a noun. Meaning is something you do,  not something you find in the garden or gift-wrapped on your birthday. 

'The' meaning would be a noun, but really, doing some meaning is a common, if reflective, activity. As a verb, meaning is simply figuring-it-out, putting-your-thoughts-together, sorting-it- out whatever. It is a personal activity. 

The gatecrashers are the spruikers at our doors, sellers of wonder-elixirs, and purveyors of instant meanings whispering g in our ears, presenting themselves as labor-saving devices, offering instant wisdom and dogmatic answers to any number of questions, fast food for the mind. 

The meaning of life?' they say. 'No problem,' presenting us with any number of fixed ideas and values by which you MUST live - Christian, Muslim, Calathumpians, Buddhists etc, it really does not matter. All the snake oil merchants are out there distributing meaning and collecting souls like accountants.

Happily, people are complex and devious about their religion. The Catholic Church says all sorts of nasty things about sex and sexual practises (the Protestants and Muslims are rarely better). So much is forbidden! 

But of course, Catholics find ways and means of getting around these rigidities. That is what makes humans so fascinating. They like to belong to a culture or group or religion, but many won't let dogma get in their way. I like that.

But meaning, the verb, is something of a job, it is time consuming, challenging and often difficult. Many of us understandably prefer to sub-contract it! Few are foolhardy enough to do it ourselves, to take the time, perhaps to enjoy it, agonise over it, and give it a good-shake. Is that what makes a good writer? Does he or she have this cantankerous, obsessive streak that drives them deeper into meaning, with all it's flights of fancy, it dark alleyways and busy intersections?

Perhaps. 

Even then, if you are comfortable with the notion of meaning as an activity, rather than a fixed menu that finishes as constipation, I might have saved you reading long books on Wisdom. We all have other things to do, and better books to read. Your meaning starts from - now.